Afghanistan 1977
The 1977 constitution of Afghanistan attempted to regularize the status of the government that came to power on July 17, 1973 in a coup that overthrew the constitutional monarchy. Mohammed Daoud, a member of the royal family, led the coup and ruled for three and a half years by decree without an interim constitution. On March 20, 1976, Daoud appointed a 20-member Constitutional Consultative Committee consisting of five cabinet members, two generals, legal specialists and academics to develop a draft constitution based on proposals advanced by the Ministries of Justice and Interior. This committee, working in secret, finished the draft constitution in approximately nine months, and a draft was published in late January 1977.
While the committee was preparing the draft constitution, Daoud announced that a Loya Jirgah would be convened in early 1977 to debate and ratify the new constitution. Afghan monarchs occasionally called Loya Jirgahs, or Grand National Assemblies, to decide matters of national importance. The 1977 Loya Jirgah consisted of 219 members elected from single-member constituencies at public meetings, 130 members appointed by Daoud, the 20 members of drafting committee, and others by virtue of their offices, for a total of over 400 delegates. Political parties were banned throughout this period, and there is no evidence that organized political groups contested the elections. The Jirgah began its consideration of the draft constitution on January 30, 1977 and debated for two weeks, amending 34 articles of the draft text and adding six new articles without changing the basic structure envisioned in the draft. The Loya Jirgah ratified the new constitution on February 14, 1977 and it came into force when signed by Daoud on February 24, 1977.
The 1977 constitution was drafted without the involvement of mediators. Consequential boycotts did not occur, in large part due to the ban on political parties, but this did not reflect widespread acceptance of the new arrangements. There were small-scale insurgencies and at least one coup attempt during the two years preceding the ratification of the constitution, and the Daoud government was overthrown in a coup on April 27, 1978; the new regime abrogated the 1977 constitution two weeks later.